1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an autoclave sterilization installation for sterilizing objects in which the autoclave has a recovery outlet for recovering sterilized objects.
The invention relates more particularly to an improvement to the recovery outlet.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a conventional autoclave sterilization installation, the recovery outlet for sterilized objects is closed throughout the sterilization cycle. Like the rest of the autoclave, the door is designed to resist a temperature of the order of 140xc2x0 C., an internal pressure of 3 to 5 bars and a vacuum of approximately 1 bar. Because the door is closed during sterilization, the inside face of the door is sterilized but not the outside face. Consequently, to recover sterilized objects with no risk of recontamination through contact with the outside environment, an isolator is fitted to the exterior of the housing of the autoclave, around the object recovery outlet, and a chemical sterilizing product is injected into the isolator at atmospheric pressure to sterilize the outside of the door before it is opened. The objects are then transferred into the isolator and placed in sealed and sterile containers by an operator wearing a captive glove.
This method of recovering sterilized objects is complicated and wastes time. It also necessitates an isolator, which constitutes a costly additional device necessitating the use of active sterilizing gas at atmospheric pressure.
A sealed connecting device between two enclosures isolated from an external environment and able to communicate with no contact with said external environment, even momentary contact, is known in the art. The principle of a device of this kind is described in French patent application No 94.07430 filed Jun. 17, 1994, for example.
In principle this kind of device was developed for carrying out transfer operations at atmospheric pressure.
The basic idea of the invention is to use the above kind of device in combination with other elements used during the sterilization process to withstand the pressures referred to above, the combination eliminating the need for an isolator when sterilized objects are recovered.
The invention provides an autoclave sterilization installation for sterilizing objects, the installation including a sterilization housing with a recovery outlet for recovering sterilized objects, which recovery outlet is equipped with a removable rigid closure member adapted to withstand pressures employed during an operating cycle, a fixed annular coupling flange with an inwardly opening door, means for locking the closure member to the annular coupling flange to close off the recovery outlet during a sterilization cycle executed with the door open, means for pressing a rigid annular flange of a recovery container against the coupling flange, and a door shaped to fit face-to-face to the inwardly opening door.
The inwardly opening door is therefore left open during the sterilization cycle and it is the rigid closure member that withstands the high pressure or the vacuum during this period. At the end of the sterilization cycle, when the pressure inside the autoclave has returned to atmospheric pressure, the door is closed, the rigid closure member is demounted and a recovery container as referred to above, for example of the kind described in the French patent application referred to above, is fixed to the annular coupling flange.
In one embodiment the rigid closure member includes a clamping screw extended by an operating handle and a bracing member is screwed to the clamping screw. The bracing member has three arms which cooperate with hooks fixed along the perimeter of the annular coupling flange attached to the sterilized object recovery outlet.
The recovery container referred to above is advantageously disposable, as is known in the art and described in the patent application referred to above.
The invention will be better understood and its other advantages will become more clearly apparent in the light of the following description of an autoclave sterilization installation in accordance with the invention, which description is given by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings.